Missouri SUTA Tax Calculator
Figure basis: Official U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment InsuranceState Unemployment Tax Act (SUTA) tax is the state unemployment insurance tax that employers pay to fund unemployment benefits in Missouri. This calculator estimates your Missouri SUTA liability for the 2026 tax year. Enter the average annual wages per employee, your number of employees, and your assigned SUTA rate to see the taxable wages, tax per employee, and total tax. SUTA is charged only on the first $9,000 of each employee's wages (the 2026 Missouri taxable wage base); wages above that per employee are not taxed. Your rate is set by the state based on your business's unemployment claim history (your "experience rating"); a new employer pays 2.376%. SUTA is separate from the federal FUTA tax and, in most states, is paid entirely by the employer and never deducted from employee wages. All wage-base and rate figures are sourced from U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance and verified for 2026. Replace the default rate with the rate on your state tax-rate notice for an exact figure.
In Missouri, employers pay SUTA on the first $9,000 of each employee's wages for 2026, and a new employer pays 2.376%. For 5 employees earning $50,000 each at 2.376%, the estimated annual SUTA tax is $1,069.20 ($213.84 per employee).
How Missouri SUTA tax works
Missouri charges state unemployment tax on each employee's wages up to the taxable wage base of $9,000 for 2026. Once an employee has earned that much in the year, no further SUTA is due on that employee. Your rate is assigned by the state from your experience rating; a new employer pays 2.376%.
taxable wages per employee = min(annual wages, $9,000)
SUTA tax per employee = taxable wages per employee x rate / 100
total SUTA tax = SUTA tax per employee x number of employees
Worked example: 5 employees each earning $50,000 in Missouri at 2.376%. Each employee's taxable wages are capped at $9,000, so the tax per employee is $213.84 and the total is $1,069.20.
Missouri SUTA figures (2026)
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable wage base | $9,000 | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
| New employer rate | 2.376% | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
| Experience rate range | 0% to 6% | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
The experience-rate range shown is the base statutory range. Most states add mandatory assessments on top (for example a fund-building, solvency, or administrative surcharge), so an employer's effective rate can be higher than the range shown, and the new-employer rate may exclude those add-ons. Your exact assigned rate is on your annual state tax-rate notice.
Making sense of Missouri's 2.376% rate
Missouri pairs a low $9,000 taxable wage base with an unusually precise new-employer rate of 2.376%. Most states round their new-employer figure to a tidy tenth of a percent, but Missouri's is derived from a statutory formula tied to the average across the state's experience-rated employers, which is why it lands on an odd three-decimal number. On the $9,000 base, 2.376% works out to $213.84 per employee per year, a modest and predictable first-year cost.
Because the wage base is only $9,000, almost every full-time worker crosses the taxable ceiling within the first quarter or two of the year, after which no further SUTA is due on that person. That front-loads your unemployment tax into the early quarters and makes the rate you are assigned, rather than total payroll, the dominant factor in your annual bill. Missouri's experience-rated band runs from 0% at the floor up to 6% at the top.
A new Missouri employer should plan to carry the 2.376% rate until the Division of Employment Security has enough claims history to calculate an individual experience rate, typically after a couple of years of reporting. Treat the default here as a starting estimate: once your annual rate notice arrives, enter your assigned rate above, since a clean layoff record is what moves you toward the 0% end of that 0% to 6% range.
Missouri SUTA tax: frequently asked questions
What is the Missouri unemployment (SUTA) taxable wage base for 2026?
For 2026, Missouri employers pay state unemployment tax on the first $9,000 of each employee's wages. Wages above $9,000 per employee are not subject to SUTA.
What is the Missouri new employer SUTA rate?
New employers in Missouri pay a SUTA rate of 2.376% until they have enough history to be experience-rated. On the $9,000 wage base that is up to $213.84 per employee per year.
How is Missouri SUTA tax calculated?
Multiply each employee's wages, capped at the $9,000 taxable wage base, by your assigned experience rate, then add up across employees. SUTA is primarily an employer-paid tax and is not deducted from employee pay.
Is the Missouri SUTA rate the same for every employer?
No. After the new-employer period, Missouri assigns each employer an experience rate based on its history of layoffs and claims, generally ranging from about 0% to 6% for experience-rated employers before any state add-on surcharges. The rate field above defaults to the new-employer rate; replace it with the rate on your state tax notice for an exact figure.
Official sources
- Missouri unemployment taxable wage base and rates (tax year 2026): U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance, as at Jul 15, 2026.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 15 July 2026. See our methodology. General information, not tax or legal advice.